1. Field of the invention
The present invention concerns a dynamic management system architecture for a set of equipments interconnected by a telecommunication network and working together in variable configurations matched to the requirements of network users. The invention applies to a tactical telecommunication network using microwave links, for example.
2. Description of the prior art
A tactical network of this kind (see FIG. 1) comprises a set of nodal stations CN located at the nodes of the network and each comprising a switching unit or switch CT connected to a plurality of equipments ET which in this example are microwave link equipments connected in turn either to network users AB or to other equipments ET at other nodal stations of the network to constitute a meshed network.
Microwave links are advantageously used in a tactical network because they enable the network to be reconfigured when under attack simply by moving one or more of its nodal stations in response to such attack.
Matching a tactical telecommunication network to the requirements of users which, in military applications, include resistance to attack, requires management data to be exchanged between the various network components and in particular between a network command center (CC), or more generally a network management center, and the equipments constituting the network whose operation and movements must be monitored by the network command center.
Management data is usually exchanged in both directions, namely from the managed equipments to the command center and from the command center to the managed equipments. This data is usually called remote supervisory or alarm data in the former case and telecontrol data in the latter case. In all cases it concerns operating parameters of the managed equipments such as frequency, power output, bit rate, etc.
It is known to transmit management data using a management support telecommunication network which is so called to distinguish it from the traffic network with which this description has been concerned until now and over which traffic data is transmitted. The management support network and the traffic network may be one and the same, in which case the management network behaves like a particular group of network users. In the case of fixed infrastructure traffic networks it is also known to use a management support network separate from the traffic network to prevent blocking situations should the traffic network fail. It is also known to transmit management data over service channels set up in parallel with traffic channels. In the case of a microwave link network, for example, this parallelism can be achieved by multiplexing within the microwave frame.
In all these various cases the management data is thus usually transmitted in a point-to-point manner between the managed equipments and the management center.
The major drawback of these methods is that they do not guarantee sufficient transmission security for management data, in particular if the traffic network is under attack, or during network reconfiguration maneuvers.
An object of the present invention is to provide a management system architecture which is able to avoid this drawback.